Okay, there are a lot of reasons why. I love that my graduate Gianmarco Soresi has booked such a lucrative commercial campaign (GE) because he earned it. He exhausted the work when he trained with me. He didn’t just train he kept upping his personal bar and went as far in any given night’s work as it was possible to go. He taught himself how to work, how to fix things that weren’t working. He learned patience and perseverance. Those things paid off. While he was in many ways more talented than some of his peers, he did the work, never blamed anyone or anything when something wasn’t working in his career or in his art.

Stage work and acting training (not in front of a camera) if it’s done within a program that has high standards and strong techniques simply builds actors who can stomach the industry, stay creative and find positive solutions to their challenges. It helps actors find creative solutions.

So when my graduates move from stage into film and TV with success – as so many have – those of us who knew them can see that the habits that led to the person’s success were built many years before the success was attained.